A growing market has developed for aftermarket accessories designed for trucks, and particularly pickup trucks, of all sizes. A wide variety of accessories are currently available, including such items as tool boxes, tailgate covers, tailgate caps, front end bed covers, step plates, antenna mounts, running boards, grille guards, step rails, muffler tips and others.
One popular accessory is known as a "bed rail, " which is a tubular-shaped section of pipe mounted to the top edge of each side wall of the bed of a truck. The bed rail extends horizontally, parallel to the top edge of the truck bed side wall, except at its ends which are bent at a 90.degree. angle to engage the side wall of the truck bed.
In the past, a flat plate or rail foot was welded directly to each end of the bed rail and secured to the side wall of the truck with fasteners such as screws or bolts. This design presented at least two problems. First, it has been found that the weld connection between the rail foot and an end of the bed rail is relatively weak and failures often occur at that location. Additionally, such attachment design does not allow for any adaptability to trucks made by different manufacturers. Although trucks are currently advertised and promoted as having a "full-size " bed or beds of other size, in practice the actual length dimension of the side wall of truck beds differ to some extent depending on the manufacturer of the vehicle. Since a rail foot is welded to the bed rail at each end in current designs, it is necessary to fabricate separate bed rails for each make of truck to ensure it properly fits the length of the truck bed side wall. Otherwise, one bed rail of fixed length intended for all "full-size" trucks, for example, would be too short for some makes and too long for others. It is costly for manufacturers to stock bed rails of many sizes, and to repair bed rails which are returned with a failure at the weld between the bed rail and rail foot.